£1.3m compensation for woman hit by biker while crossing road

6th May 2011

A 63-year-old mother who sustained a spinal cord injury when she was knocked down by a motorbike has received £1.3m in an out of court settlement.

The woman, who worked as a dinner lady at a local school, was crossing the road as she made her way to work when she was hit by the speeding motorcycle. She suffered a catalogue of injuries, the most serious being spinal cord damage resulting in incomplete tetraplegia and unstable spinal fractures which have permanently impaired her movement and her ability to function in many aspects of her daily life.

After her husband spoke with Brake the road safety charity, the victim contacted Fentons Solicitors where serious injury specialist Deborah Johnson took up the woman’s fight for justice.

“This woman was crossing a road she had crossed hundreds of times before, on her way to work,” said Deborah, who was assisted on the case by associate Gary Herbert and solicitor Jonathan Fogerty. “Unfortunately on this occasion a man riding a motorbike pulled out to overtake a lorry when he shouldn’t have done and ploughed into her.”

Deborah explained that neither the client nor motorcyclist had any recollection of the incident and there were very few witnesses, so police reports and accident reconstruction evidence were needed to establish what happened.

“My client sustained serious, life-changing spinal injuries,” said Deborah. “Although liability was conceded, the defendant continued to allege that the claimant couldn’t have looked before crossing the road and so must have been partly to blame. This meant that we had to go to trial - but at the doors of the court room, the defendant’s insurers offered to settle the claim for £1.3m.”

She also explained that due to the nature of the victim’s spinal injury, there was a significant risk that she may suffer further deterioration in her condition in the future.

“Because of this risk, we managed to negotiate provisional damages,” said Deborah, “which will allow the court to award a further sum in the future, should her condition worsen and her needs change.”